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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to miniature toy cars, and more particularly to a manually or self-propelled miniature toy car equipped to flip or upset another toy vehicle of similar size and shape or another object upon forwardly impact of the toy vehicle thereagainst.
2. Description of Related Art
Miniature toy cars have always been popular for small children playing on the floor and other support surfaces with such toy vehicles. These toy vehicles having distinctive outer car body shapes have traditionally included those which are manually propelled toy cars, those which are frictionally energized and maintained in motion by inertia wheels and, most recently, more sophisticated remote or wireless controlled steerable self-propelled toy cars whose direction and speed are regulated by a separate wireless control unit.
Examples of some of the prior art miniature toy cars are disclosed in the following U.S. Patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,669 to Parker
U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,197 to Kulesza
U.S. Pat. No. 3,176,429 to Brown
U.S. Pat. No. 4,466,214 to Kulesza
U.S. Pat. No. 2,597,094 to Gutmann
U.S. Pat. No. 3,000,137 to Vine
U.S. Pat. No. 4,160,253 to Mabuchi
U.S. Pat. No. 4,112,615 to Ishimoto
U.S. Pat. No. 3,629,680 to Baynes
U.S. Pat. No. 4,563,626 to Ohtake
U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,076 to Shinozuka
U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,232 to Ishimoto
U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,495 to Yonezawa
The present invention provides a miniature toy vehicle of the above type which is equipped with a forwardly positioned flipping or object upsetting mechanism which, when armed and impacting against another vehicle of similar shape and size or another object also of similar size and shape will, upon such forwardly impact thereagainst, engage beneath and flip or upset the other toy vehicle or object from a normal orientation. The preferred embodiment of the invention is directed to the wireless control miniature self-propelled toy vehicles whose velocity and steering direction is regulated by a separate wireless control unit which enhances the versatility and creativity of directing such a wireless control toy vehicle at and against another toy vehicle of similar size and shape in pursuit fashion.
This invention is directed to a miniature toy vehicle, preferably of the wireless control self-propelled type equipped to flip or upset another similar toy vehicle or object upon forward impact therewith. The preferred toy vehicle includes a molded toy car body supporting front and rear wheels, steering, a control circuit board, a drive motor and a battery. A front flipping member is supported by the car body having a forwardly distal portion at a height, when the flipping member is armed, for engagement beneath a lower side or end margin of another toy vehicle or an object. The flipping member will upwardly flip or upset the other toy car or object when a trigger member thereof strikes the other toy car or an object.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a miniature toy vehicle equipped to flip or upset another toy vehicle or object of similar size and shape when impacted during forwardly motion of the toy vehicle.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a wireless miniature toy vehicle which is self-propelled and controlled in direction and speed so as to be steerable in pursuit fashion against another toy vehicle of similar size and shape or another object so as to trigger a spring-loaded flipping or upsetting mechanism attached to the forwardly end of the toy vehicle.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a challenging game of miniature toy car pursuit and evasion of self-propelled wireless controlled toy vehicles against one another wherein successful engagement of the forwardly end of one of the toy vehicles beneath and against a side or rearward lower margin of another such similar vehicle will trigger a flipping or upsetting mechanism which will cause the other impacted vehicle to be either flipped or upset off of its normal orientation atop a floor or flat play surface.